Fair Use Note

WARNING for European visitors: European Union laws require you to give European Union visitors information about cookies used on your blog. In many cases, these laws also require you to obtain consent. As a courtesy, we have added a notice on your blog to explain Google's use of certain Blogger and Google cookies, including use of Google Analytics and AdSense cookies. You are responsible for confirming this notice actually works for your blog, and that it displays. If you employ other cookies, for example by adding third party features, this notice may not work for you. Learn more about this notice and your responsibilities.

Mount Aso volcano erupts following violent earthquake streak in Japan (VIDEO) Published time: 16 Apr, 2016 01:00Edited time: 16 Apr, 2016 02:14 https://www.rt.com/news/339788-japan-volcano-eruption-quakes/ Since small eruptions had been recorded at Mt. Aso even before the series of deadly quakes hit the area on Thursday and Friday, the Japanese Meteorological Agency has reportedly decided to keep the alert level at 2 on a scale of 1-5....

Amid a media frenzy over the spread of the Zika virus worldwide, the CDC have been forced to admit that people are able to self-immunize against the virus, and have also suggested that Zika itself does not cause Microcephaly. On their own website, the Center for Disease Control, say: People usually don’t get sick enough to go to the hospital, and they very rarely die of Zika. For this reason, many people might not realize they have been infected. Once a person has been infected, he or she is likely to be protected from future infections. Naturalnews.com reports: In other words, a Z...more »

Authorities in Japan are urging members of the public to keep calm after a large volcano erupted on Saturday morning. The eruption follows Thursday’s 6.5. earthquake and Friday’s 7.0 – which many experts now believe to be a precursor to something much bigger. The government have decided to keep the alert level at a 2 out of 5, claiming they are not yet sure if the events are related. According to RT News: Plumes of smoke rose some 100 meters into the sky, according to local media and videos captured by witnesses. The eruption of Mt. Aso, located in southern Japan, was recorded at a...more »

Bill Nye “The Science Guy” has said that he believes that all climate change deniers should be locked away in prison, sharing the same views expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr in 2014. Kennedy said that he would favor giving climate diners “three hots and a cot at the hague with all the other war criminals” – an idea that Nye appeared to agree with in a recent interview. Offthegridnews.com reports: “Was it appropriate to jail the guys from ENRON?” Nye asked. “Was it appropriate to jail people from the cigarette industry who insisted that this addictive product was not addictive and ...more »

Robert De Niro has expressed sorrow for deciding to pull a controversial film confirming that the MMR vaccine causes autism – saying that his own son became autistic ‘overnight’ after receiving the vaccine from doctors. The actor and creator of the Tribeca Film Festival came under fire last week after caving into pressure from Big Pharma and pulling Andrew Wakefield’s new film Vaxxed: From Cover-up To Catastrophe. Dailymail.co.uk reports: ‘All I wanted is for the movie to be seen and people can make up their own judgement but you must see it,’ he said during an appearance on The To...more »

Tax returns show that democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders earned less in 2014 than Hillary Clinton did in just one of her almost 50 speeches that same year. Sanders earned slightly over $200,000 according to tax returns. The same figure that Clinton earned in a single day. Thehill.com reports: The Weekly Standard on Friday checked that with a CNN analysis from February, finding that Clinton gave multiple speeches in 2014 worth more than Sanders’s entire income that year. It said that the former secretary of State gave speeches worth $225,000 to GE, $325,000 for the Nat...more »

Facebook employees have urged CEO Mark Zuckerberg to prevent a Donald Trump presidency in 2017 – by asking him to outline a plan that will thwart his ability to campaign on social media. Zuckerberg partially addressed the issues raised by employees on an internal poll, by denouncing the political positions of Trump’s presidential campaign during a keynote speech at the annual F8 developer conference this week. “I hear fearful voices calling for building walls and distancing people they label as ‘others,’” Zuckerberg said. “I hear them calling for blocking free expression, for slowi...more »

Ashton Carter speaks to Vox at the Pentagon. Johnny Harris and Joss Fong, VOX *Max Fisher, VOX:* *Full transcript: Vox interviews Defense Secretary Ash Carter* I sat down recently with Defense Secretary Ash Carter to discuss some of the most important strategic challenges facing the United States since the end of the Cold War, how those challenges have changed over the course of his career, and what he foresees will change in the future. You can read a feature article on Carter's vision of great power competition here, and watch a video on the blurring lines of deterrence here. An...more »

My accountant just e-mailed me that I'm not going to owe much on my taxes this year. Whew! But what a hassle the process is anyway! I think everyone agrees with that regardless of which political party you belong to. The Republican professional politician response though always involves killing the IRS and making it easier for the super-rich to cheat with even more alacrity than the already do. Blue Dogs and New Dems-- the Republican wing of the Democratic Party-- often go along with the Republican schemes. Elizabeth Warren has a better idea. In the Senate today, she introduced the...more »

https://www.superstation95.com/index.php/world/1152 *CHINA SAYS "NO DOLLARS" FOR NEW YUAN* Post by U.S.Reporter Apr 13, 2016 In a shocking move likely to crush the US economy overnight, China is refusing to make its new gold-backed Yuan, convertible from or to US Dollars. The new Yuan will be introduced next Tuesday, April 19. When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to add the Yuan to the basket of world currencies used for Global Reserves and International Trade, they wanted China to make the Yuan more reliable as a currency. Since then, China has almost un-pegged its Y...more »

[4/15/16, 3:13:35 PM] DENICE: *COMMANDER TERRAN. WE SEND ABREVIATED GREETINGS OF GRAND JUBILATION!. THERE IS "MOVEMENT" WE SEE NOW AS "SOME" DATA IS REVEALED TO YOUR EARTHSPHERE. WE ANTICIPATE A "FLURRY" OF "RELEASES" IN THE UPCOMING EARTHSPHERE "DAYS". PREPARE TO BE "FLOODED". ONCE THE DATA BEGINS TO "DRIP" IT WILL INDEED "BREAK THE DAM". MALLIEUN.* [4/15/16, 3:14:23 PM] Terran: *Was the news from Deutsche bank the start of that drip?* *http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/case-closed-deutsche-bank-confirms-silver-market-manipulation-legal-settlement-agree* *http://www.ze...more »

The State Department have reluctantly agreed to release telephone transcripts that prove former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was fully aware that the Benghazi attack was preplanned before the release of an online protest film. Clinton has, until now, claimed that she believed the attacks were due to “inflammatory material posted on the Internet”. Youngcons.com reports: From BizPacReview: The conservative political watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained a transcript of telephone call between the then-secretary of state and then-Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil. “We know t...more »

“The Virgo Cluster of Galaxies is the closest cluster of galaxies to our Milky Way Galaxy. The Virgo Cluster is so close that it spans more than 5 degrees on the sky - about 10 times the angle made by a full Moon. With its heart lying about 70 million light years distant, the Virgo Cluster is the nearest cluster of galaxies, contains over 2,000 galaxies, and has a noticeable gravitational pull on the galaxies of the Local Group of Galaxies surrounding our Milky Way Galaxy. *Click image for larger size.* The cluster contains not only galaxies filled with stars but also gas so hot it g...more »

China's President Xi Jinping is set to roll out a new command structure that will solidify his control of the country's armed forces. In this photo, a picture of Xi seen behind soldiers of China's People's Liberation Army marching during a training session for a military parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of the World War Two, at a military base in Beijing, China on Aug 22, 2015. Reuters/Damir Sagolj *Derek Grossman & Michael S. Chase, National Interest*: *Why Xi is Purging the Chinese Military* *China's president pulls a page from Mao's little red playbook.* Much has ...more »

*“Do Unto Others”* by Chet Raymo “If there is not a divinely prescribed code of morality, reinforced by reward or punishment in the afterlife, then why be good? Why not do any damn thing one pleases? We hear this argument a lot, particularly in this politically-charged season when religious fundamentalism appears to wield an inordinate amount of influence, at least on one side of the political divide. What about reason? Can reason prescribe good and bad? Well, lots has been written on the natural foundations of morality, by people more qualified than me, but let me mention somethi...more »

*The Telegraph*: *Aircraft carrier visit by Pentagon chief Ash Carter unleashes storm in South China Sea* A visit by the US defence chief to one of his country’s aircraft carriers is normally a routine part of the job, but not when it is sailing through the disputed waters of the South China Sea. The US is taking an increasingly assertive stance in the face of China’s aggressive bid to claim virtually the entire waters off its southern coast in the face of competing claims several other South East Asian states. Even before Ash Carter, the defence secretary, stepped off a helicopte...more »

*“Socrates’ Justice – Law and Disorder”* by Anya Leonard "Somewhere between the words of Socrates and the thoughts of Plato lies the profound question of what is ‘Just’. Is it defined by laws and men or is it something separate, something ideal? When one is wrongfully imprisoned, for example, is it okay to escape, to break the “law” as it is written? This was the quandary in which Socrates found himself when facing an unfair death sentence. Of course, we can’t be sure which ideas actually belong to Socrates or to Plato. We only know that "Crito," the second defense of Socrates, was...more »

A Nebraska judge has denied a prisoner’s lawsuit that claimed he was denied his right to worship his “God”, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The defendant also claims he faced discrimination for his faith and was mocked for his beliefs. According to ABC: Stephen Cavanaugh sued the Department of Correctional Services and penitentiary officials in 2014 seeking $5 million and a court order mandating that inmates who practice FSMism receive the same rights and privileges as inmates who practice other religions. U.S. District Judge John Gerrard dismissed the lawsuit on Tuesday. He said in h...more »

*Reuters*: *Protesters demand fall of Egypt's government over islands deal* Thousands of Egyptians angered by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to hand over two islands to Saudi Arabia called on Friday for the government to fall, chanting a slogan from the 2011 Arab Spring uprising. Their protests signaled that the former general, who is also under mounting criticism over the struggling economy, no longer enjoys the broad public support that let him round up thousands of opponents after he seized power in 2013. In the evening, riot police who had surrounded the site of the...more »

The Grayson for Senate campaign is getting close to having it's 100,000th contributor. That 100,000th contribution is going to come in in the next few days. And Blue America is going to give whoever that person is a platinum album as rare in the world of Depeche Mode collectibles as Alan Grayson' policy of truth is in a corrupted Congress. The 1991 Violator album went platinum in Mexico and Warner Bros Music Mexico, the Depeche Mode label there made a dozen hand-crafted awards and one of those gorgeous plaques is the one that is being given away to the 100,000th donor. Grayson's ...more »

In July of 2014, at the height of preparation for the worst conflict between Israel and Palestine in recent history, Israeli troops gathered at the Gaza border. Hamas had been firing rockets into Israel for days at this point and Israel warplanes were now beginning to bomb Palestine. The St. Louis Post Gazette reports: The orders for the Givati brigade, an elite infantry unit, came in a typed, single-page letter. “History has chosen us to spearhead the fight against the terrorist Gazan enemy who curses, vilifies and abominates Israel’s God,” Colonel Ofer Winter, the unit’s commandin...more »

*“Meaning” * “When I die, I will see the lining of the world. The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset. The true meaning, ready to be decoded. What never added up will add Up, What was incomprehensible will be comprehended. And if there is no lining to the world? If a thrush on a branch is not a sign, But just a thrush on the branch? If night and day Make no sense following each other? And on this earth there is nothing except this earth? Even if that is so, there will remain A word wakened by lips that perish, A tireless messenger who runs and runs Through interstella...more »

[image: MYTELENE, GREECE - MARCH 09: Migrants and Refugee from Afghanistan and Syria stand in line at the Port of Mytelene prior boarding a ferry, which will bring 500 refugees to Athens, on March 9, 2016 in Mytelene, Greece. 10 boats arrived during the night and day, 400 refugees and migrants were picked up by the Greek Coast Guard and the German Search and rescue team (SAR). Joined Forces of the Standing NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) Maritime Group 2, are patrolling the coast of the greek Island of Lesbos and the turkish coast. Turkey has announced on Monday to take ba...more »

*“They favored policies that created “equal opportunity” and fostered “individual rights,” instead of those designed to eradicate the structural underpinnings of racial segregation and economic inequity.”—Professor Lily Geismer, "Atari Democrats", Jacobin* Thomas Frank has a new book out. While I've only read excerpts from his previous works, and several of his essays, I think Paul D'Amato sums up Frank well in that he: "offers some important food for thought–but it’s more of a snack than a full meal." That said, given the precariousness of public education in this era of neoliber...more »

Today, April 15 - 4/15 in North America - the Fight for 15 and Fairness made another leap forward. All over the US and Canada, and in countries all over the world, workers marched, walked out, rallied, chanted, and demonstrated, for themselves, and for all of us. No matter what we earn, our communities will benefit when everyone is paid a living wage. Looking back on last year's 4/15, the successes have been nothing short of amazing. Alberta, California, and New York State join the cities of Seattle and New York in pledging a $15/hour minimum wage. The two US states are moving way t...more »

The Irving press hasn't said much about The Leap Manifesto by the NDP. We get a never ending series of commentaries by Liberal and Conservative politicians, none of them with anything useful to say. But rarely, if ever, a commentary from any other party. In fact, The Leap Manifesto is about a series of quite necessary issues we have to deal with. (Of course, it's possible these are issues Mr. Irving does not care to deal with.) Anyway, The Globe and Mail, not having the high standards of the Irving press, has published a commentary on it. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/sorr...more »

Some great news for everyone.. My friend and colleague, Whitewraithe, is finally back from her hiatus.... Her computer is finally up and running after months of being disabled, and she is again writing articles over at Pragmatic Witness (www.whitewraithe.wordpress.com)..... Please take the time to go over to her site and give her some "welcome back" wishes if you can..... And yes, we are finally discussing the relaunch of our "Turbulent Times" shows over Blogtalk radio.... I will let everyone know here at NTS when our newest show is on air..... Welcome back, Whitewraithe.. You we...more »

[image: OPM - 900] Federal employees may not be able to hide union business done on taxpayers' dime much longer. Government workers have long conducted union work on the clock while collecting their taxpayer-funded salaries, with little public attention. But a new bill making its...more »

"Keep working. Keep trying. Keep believing. You still might not make it, but at least you gave it your best shot. If you don't have calluses on your soul, this isn't for you. Take up knitting instead." - David Eddings

“Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity. The power of the one needs the stupidity of the other. The process at work here is not that particular human capacities, for instance, the intellect, suddenly atrophy or fail. Instead, it seems that under the overwhelming impact of rising power, humans are deprived of their inner independence and, more or less consciously, give up establishing an autonomous position toward the emerging ci...more »

*MmmmMmmmGOOD!* I've missed doing my *'chemical manipulation of humanity' *series, so today there are two posts on the subject! Below is the second. phthalate filled- yummy *People who eat a lot of fast food may be exposed to higher amounts of certain chemicals in plastics that are believed to disrupt human hormones and possibly cause cancer, according to a U.S. study.* Researchers found that *people who eat the most fast food have up to 39 per cent more of two industrial chemicals called phthalates in their blood* than those who eat less, or no fast food at all. *“We found a sign...more »

*Jared Malsin, Time*: *The Fate of Two Deserted Islands Has Egyptians Taking to the Streets Again* *Egyptians in Cairo and Alexandria protested the handover of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia, a sign of new pressure on President Sisi.* Protesters in Egypt defied police on Friday staging some of the largest demonstrations in the country in more than a year in order to denounce the government’s decision to hand control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The protests follow a long period in which major demonstrations had vanished from the central districts of Cairo and Alexa...more »

*"Society is Reaching Critical Mass"* By Robert Arvay "There is a limit to how much stress can be put on something before it is finally and irreversibly destroyed. It goes by several different names. Critical mass, tipping point, and system overload are but a few. In each case, the term refers to an event that finally breaks the camel’s back (to use yet another term for the same thing). Society is not merely reaching its critical mass; it is reaching it so swiftly that predictably, there will be an abrupt and catastrophic breakdown of historic proportions, eclipsing even the fall o...more »

Documents leaked in 2014 from a senior military official linked to the left-wing “Meretz” party, appear to show an aligned military cooperation between Israel and Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea. What could this mean for the future? From the MP.com: This agreement is concluded to Saudi Arabia and Israel management on Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal and the Red Sea littoral countries as well. Published information from this source mention in duty of a host by Israel of a number of officers Arabia to participate in military training courses in the base of poloniu...more »

A group of activists from over 30 different countries are planning mass protests over Norway’s legal “kidnapping” of children Demonstrations against the Norwegian Child Welfare Service are taking place on Saturday in what the activists call the agency’s practice of “kidnapping” children from their families. According to The Local: After a wave of demonstrations over the past several months, the Norwegian Child Welfare Service (Barnevernet) will be the subject of a coordinated ‘day of action’ that could draw as many as 300,000 people, organizers told The Local. Spurred by a high-prof...more »

An astonishing new brain implant has allowed a paralyzed man to move again Ian Burkhart was involved in a swimming accident five years ago that left him paralyzed and unable to use his hands, but he is now able to perform a multitude of tasks from pouring water to playing video games. GeoBeats News reports: The technology was developed by researchers from both Ohio State University and Batelle Research. It operates by allowing brain signals to bypass Burkhart’s damaged spinal cord and be delivered directly to the appropriate muscles. The microchip that picks up the pulses is implante...more »

*Netanyahu admits that which is already well know about Israel’s involvement in Syria!* *JP* *Aerial bombing of Syria: * *"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week for the first time acknowledged openly that Israel has engaged in air action to interdict the transfer of sophisticated weapons systems from Syrian soil to Hezbollah in Lebanon.“We act when we need to act, including here, across the border, with dozens of strikes meant to prevent Hezbollah from obtaining game-changing weaponry,” Netanyahu said during a visit to military units on the Golan Heights"* Israel has engag...more »

[image: teacher - 900] A rising tide of regulation has covered almost a third of the U.S. labor market. Workers who previously could find a job on the strength of their experience and talent now need their state government's permission before taking a job....more »

[image: U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement on economy at the James Brady Press Briefing of the White House April 5, 2016 in Washington, DC. President Obama made a statement in response to the Treasury Department announcement on corporate tax inversions that would stop companies from avoiding U.S. taxes by moving their tax base overseas.] Last week's Daily Signal op-ed on a new regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency provided an informative crash course on the history of private property rights and its relation to the Clean Water Act. Judging by the transcripts...more »

*CNN:* *7.0 quake strikes Japan after earlier one kills 9* (CNN)Daybreak in Japan should reveal the extent of the damage from a magnitude-7.0 earthquake that struck early Saturday in Kyushu island, the same region hit by a 6.2 quake two days earlier. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the latest quake struck just west-southwest of Kumamoto-shi and about 8 miles south-southeast of Ueki, the epicenter of the late Thursday tremor that left nine dead. It was not immediately clear whether anyone was injured or killed as a result of Saturday's seismic event. Nor was it clear how mu...more »

$1,400,000,000,000: Oxfam Exposes the Great Offshore Tax Scam of US Companies“A Crisis Point in Our Democracy:” Why Progressive Leaders and Thousands of Others Will Risk Arrest This WeekClinton and Goldman: Why It MattersThe Fed Sends a Frightening Letter to JPMorgan and Corporate Media Yawns The Cruz strategy has been gamed by the Don's. And when you compare them, the Don wins. The

*Tea and pastries are on Wall Street* Yesterday I was upstairs putting on my shoes and socks and MSNBC was on. Andrea Mitchell was in the middle of an interview with Kirsten Gillibrand, the upstate New York politician who was appointed to Hillary's Senate seat in 2009 when Obama gave Hillary the Secretary of State job. Wikipedia correctly defines her politics with this description: "A member of the Democratic Party's relatively conservative Blue Dog faction while in the House, Gillibrand has been seen as a progressive since her appointment to the Senate. In both cases, her views wer...more »

Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani (L) stands at the frontline during offensive operations against Islamic State militants in the town of Tal Ksaiba in Salahuddin province March 8, 2015. Picture taken March 8, 2015. REUTERS/STRINGER *Reuters*: *Iran's Soleimani in Russia for talks on Syria, missiles: sources* Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani has flouted an international travel ban and flown to Moscow for talks with Russia's military and political leadership on Syria and deliveries of Russian missiles, sources said on Friday. The main purpose of his visit...more »

Thousands of people from across the UK are expected to gather in central London on Saturday in protest against the government’s austerity measures. They will also be calling for the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron over recent revelations of offshore investment funds linked to his family. This will not be the first call for Cameron to step down following the Panama Papers leak; there was a protest in London last week where demonstrators chanted “Resign! Resign!” outside 10 Downing Street. RT reports: The demonstration through the center of the capital will end on Trafalg...more »

[image: Nigel - 900] The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage slammed President Barack Obama Friday as the "most anti-British president" in U.S. history. Obama already sparked outrage from some for favoring that Britain remain in the European Union. The British...more »

[image: Colorado State Flag with Ballot - 900] As Republican policymakers nationwide continue debating ways to replace Obamacare with patient-centered solutions, a Colorado group has landed a plan implementing a single-payer model of health care on November's ballot. Coloradans are already bracing for its impact. In the general...more »

[image: Tony Spence] Tony Spence, longtime editor in chief of the Catholic News Service, resigned on Wednesday after running CNS for twelve years. This resignation was by request and afterwards he was reportedly escorted from the building without the chance to speak to...more »

*"A Visit to Our Old Faithful Ranch Manager, Jorge"* by Bill Bonner GUALFIN, Argentina – “We always felt a little ashamed… or we had an inferiority complex… because our government was so bad.” An Argentine friend – a cattle man – was explaining how he felt about his new president, business mogul Mauricio Macri. (To fill readers in, Macri was mayor of Buenos Aires after years working in the private sector in construction and manufacturing. Last November, he beat a populist left-wing opponent to become Argentina’s new president… ending 12 years of rule by the dominant Peronist party....more »

Five ‘terror’ suspects that are believed to have ties to the terrorists who conducted the Brussels and Paris attacks, were arrested in the UK on Friday. West Midlands police said that three men and one woman were arrested in the central city of Birmingham on Thursday night and one man was arrested a London’s Gatwick Airport early on Friday. NBC News reports: A spokeswoman for West Midlands Police would not say specifically whether the detentions were linked to arrests in France and Belgium relating to the Brussels and Paris attacks, only telling NBC News that they had “followed on ...more »

*Washington Post:** Fighting surges in Syria amid apparent collapse of truce backed by U.S., Russia* GAZIANTEP, Turkey — A surge in fighting across Syria on Thursday signaled the apparent collapse of a landmark cease-fire that has been under mounting stress in recent days because of intensifying assaults by government forces and rebels. The partial truce, which took effect in late February, represented a rare moment of agreement over the Syrian conflict between its most powerful outside players: Russia and the United States. Although Moscow backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad ...more »

As we all have been inundated over these last few weeks with the "Panama Papers" and other fluff... It does make anyone wonder if these distractions have all been done on purpose, and that there is something about to occur that will catch everyone "off guard" and "unprepared".... And yes, I have discovered something that could indeed be changing our world as early as next week that very few people are even aware of! According to the following report from the Superstation 95 website, at www.superstation95.com, news has come out just a few days ago that the Chinese are about to launch...more »

*April 16, 2016* (Tony Cartalucci - NEO) - Myanmar's political transition is being hailed by Western politicians, special interests, and its media as "historic" and a new beginning for "democracy" in the Southeast Asian nation. *Image: Suu Kyi at the Lowy Institute - a Western corporate-financier sponsored policy think tank that enthusiastically supports her and the "free trade" and "open economy" she plans to impose upon Myanmar. The institute also has numerous ties with Western universities and media agencies, with propaganda developed at the think-tank verbatim translated into "...more »

[image: Apprentice - 900] NEW YORK (AP) -- A winner of The Apprentice and three other former contestants on Donald Trump’s reality show denounced the Republican front-runner’s presidential campaign as racist and divisive on Friday. Randal Pinkett, a business consultant who won the show’s...more »

[image: Bible and gun - 900] JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill Friday that allows some members of churches to undergo firearms training so they can provide armed security for their congregations. The Church Protection Act specifies that those designated can carry...more »

[image: Tim Tebow-900] Will Tim Tebow run for Congress? The Washington Examiner reports that Florida Republicans have a dream to draft the popular football star for an open seat in Florida's 4th Congressional District. Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R) currently holds the seat. This...more »

After a tip-off from *News-watch*'s David Keighley, I've begun comparing Nick Robinson's *Europe: Them or Us *with the 1996 BBC series it drew upon for its treasure trove of archive material - *The Poisoned Chalice.* I'm only five or so minutes into the 1996 series (with about 195 minutes to go), but I've already been brought up short.... Nick Robinson's programme itself must have brought many people up short with this early passage, suggesting that Winston Churchill was the father of a united Europe and that the Great British Bulldog became its father in the early days of World ...more »

*FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016The Washington Post is amazed:* Last night, Candidate Sanders raised an excellent point. He also misstated the facts. We've seen him do this many times. It drives the analysts wild: SANDERS (4/14/16): We are the only country, major country on Earth that does not guarantee health care to all people, and yet *we end up spending almost three times what the British do, 50 percent more than the French.* "Why does he say that?" the analysts cry. "Why does he say that we only spend 50 percent more than the French?" We've never known what to tell them. That statisti...more »

It is estimated that around one million people across the UK are breaking the law by using cannabis for medicinal reasons. Many of those people are suffering chronic and painful conditions and the currently available medicines don’t always work for them, whereas cannabis does. They are also faced with a terrible dilemma -should they continue to suffer or risk of breaking the law? Campaigners and British MP’s are stepping up the call for the legalisation of medical marijuana. Activist Post reports: Patients not criminals Many derive the benefits of marijuana as an alternative to fist...more »

*FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016Regas lectures the world:* In last night's debate, it finally happened. One of our tribe's most treasured bombs was dropped within our own tents. We've always loved to drop our bombs on The Others. Inevitably, we're now dropping our bombs on ourselves. This is the official transcript, including audience reaction: LOUIS (4/14/16): Senator Sanders, earlier this week at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, you called out President Clinton for defending Secretary Clinton's use of the term "super-predator" back in the '90s when she supported the crime bill. Why did yo...more »

My friend Phill Swagel gives his students the following assignment: Imagine that you are a staff member working for a member of Congress who sits on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC). Fed Chair Janet Yellen is about to testify before the JEC and you are assigned to write a three-page memo to prepare your boss—the member of Congress. You are to focus on economics. This is not a political question and you should assume for this assignment that the member of Congress you work for is interested in economics and not politics. The first part of this assignment is for you to provide you...more »

For the second day in a row, an earthquake has slammed southwestern Japan near the island of Kyushu. The quake, which was initially rated at 7.4 and later downgraded, hit at 1.26am on Saturday, local time. Kyushu is still recovering from yesterday’s quake which injured thousands and killed nine. A tsunami warning was issued, but has now been lifted. Are these quakes the prelude to a much larger event? USA Today reports: Friday’s earthquake was centered only a half mile from Kumamoto, the capital city of the Kumamoto prefecture on the island of Kyushu, according to the U.S. Geological...more »

NHK reports: M7.1 earthquake hits southwestern Japan http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ A magnitude 7.1 earthquake has struck the Kyushu region in southwestern Japan. Japan's Meteorological Agency says the quake occurred at around 1:25AM on Saturday. It says the focus was about 10 kilometers deep in Kumamoto Prefecture. The jolt registered an intensity of 6 plus on the Japanese seismic scale of 0 to 7 in some parts of the prefecture. My heart goes out to the people of Kyushu. 9 People have been reported dead. A CNN interview with a USGS geologist in Colorado reported it was only 10...more »

*Daily Mail*: *EXCLUSIVE - 'Welcome to the NEW Lesbos': Now Sicily is flooded with 2,000 migrants EVERY DAY since the Balkans route shut * * Sicily is being called 'the new Lesbos' as thousands of migrants begin to arrive on ancient Mediterranean island * In the past three days alone more than 6,000 people have landed, as arrivals increase by 90 per cent on last year * MailOnline gained exclusive access to the Norwegian rescue ship helping to bring migrants from Libya to Palermo * Fleet of ships has been tasked with monitoring sea routes popular with migrants and picking up struggli...more »

*"When we also understand that leaders of this world recognize a High Cabal... I myself cannot disbelieve the existence of a High Cabal...the High Cabal very probably includes Asians and more probably is led by Asians. * *I wouldn't argue that, I don't know how to explain it, except if you watch rain fall, you notice it all runs in accordance with gravity."* *- Col. L. Fletcher Prouty* *An earlier group of Asiatic peoples depicted entering Egypt c. 1900 BC, from the tomb of a 12th Dynasty official Khnumhotep II under pharaoh Senusret II at Beni Hasan.* *The Existence of a Hig...more »

By Paul Homewood http://www.nltimes.nl/2016/04/14/hundreds-dutch-green-energy-windmills-operating-loss/ News from the Netherlands: Hundreds of wind turbines in the Netherlands are operating at a loss and are in danger of being demolished. The main cause is the very low energy prices, which mean that the maintaining the turbines cost more than what the generated energy bring in, […]

*outrageous!!* I originally saw the video last night on a site other than Gateway Pundit. My first reaction was, "Well, that's really rude." This is what Jim Hoft (bless his heart) posted at Gateway Pundit: *WOW! New York audience Completely Tunes Ted Cruz Out at GOP Dinner - along with the following video.* *New York Values—* Ted Cruz spoke at the New York Republican Dinner on Thursday night. The audience spoke over him. You can barely hear Ted over the din in the room. The longer Ted spoke the louder the room got. By the time he wrapped up his ridiculously long speech the crowd wa...more »

[image: Palmyra - 900] PALMYRA, Syria (AP) -- When Islamic State fighters overran the ancient Syrian town of Palmyra almost a year ago, Maha Abderrazak was among tens of thousands of terrified civilians who fled west, many escaping with just the clothes on their...more »

(With a huge h/t to David Keighley at News-watch)... Here's a transcript of the final part of Professor Anand Menon's *How the European Union Works *series for Radio 4's *The World at One*. You will note that Prof. Menon is attempting to knock down another major pro-Brexit point: the claim that the EU today isn't what we signed up to. He argues that's irrelevant as all the subsequent developments came about through the decisions of member states (including the UK), including the Maastricht Treaty - which rather misses the point, I think, that the British *people* haven't had a sa...more »

*In this instance, the big boys are all software companies (source; click to enlarge).* *by Gaius Publius* *“During the term of this agreement, the IRS will not compete with the Consortium ["of tax software companies"] in providing free, on-line tax return preparation and filing services to taxpayers.”* –IRS and Free File Alliance, LLC, Free On-Line *“I’m a Republican. My two colleagues on the board were Democrats. We unanimously supported continuing and extending the [taxpayer-friendly ReadyReturn] program…In all my years as a state senator, a U.S. congressman and state fina...more »

Commanders of the Iraqi volunteer forces have slammed the US and its regional allies for continuing their military and logistical support for ISIS terrorists in Iraq. Spokesman for Iraq’s Ansarullah al-Nujaba Movement, Hashem al-Moussavi said on Wednesday: “Washington is still continuing its military supports for the terrorists in Iraq” Fars News Agency reports: He reiterated that al-Nujaba Movement forces are collecting documents, photos and videos of supplies airdropped by the US-led coalition forces for the ISIL terrorists in Iraq. “Our forces have filmed the US aircraft while dr...more »

Alemarah App *Sami Yousafzai, Daily Beast:* *Taliban: ‘We Could Keep Fighting Forever'* *It’s going to be a long, long war.* ISLAMABAD — The snows are melting in Afghanistan, flowers (including opium poppies) will soon be blooming, and, in what has become an annual ritual, the Taliban have announced their plan for a spring offensive. They have given this one the name “Mullah Omar,” after the leader whose death they admitted only last year. The Interior Ministry of he U.S.-backed government in Kabul responded by saying “there is nothing new in the Taliban offensive.” But, in fact, ...more »

*Reuters*: *Taliban launch major push to retake northern Afghan city* Hundreds of Taliban insurgents have launched an offensive to seize the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, which they captured and held for several days last year, provincial officials said on Friday. The offensive around Kunduz began only days after the Islamist group announced their annual spring offensive, vowing to launch large-scale attacks using suicide bombers and guerilla fighters to drive the Western-backed government from power. Fighting broke out on Thursday in six districts in Kunduz province, a crucial...more »

*ABC News Online*: *Russian jets in mock attack could have been shot down, US Secretary of State John Kerry warns* US Secretary of State John Kerry has warned his country would have been within its rights to shoot down Russian warplanes during what it described as a simulated attack on a US destroyer in the Baltic Sea. "We condemn this kind of behaviour. It is reckless. It is provocative. It is dangerous," Mr Kerry said in an interview with CNN Espanol and the Miami Herald. "And under the rules of engagement that could have been a shoot-down. "People need to understand that this ...more »

*Washington Post*: *Merkel allows prosecution of German comedian who mocked Turkish president* German Chancellor Angela Merkel has cleared the way for the prosecution of German comedian Jan Böhmermann, whose poem mocking Turkey's president has become the centerpiece of a clash between Germany's free-speech traditions and the government's efforts to safeguard its important relations with Turkey. In a news conference Friday, Merkel emphasized that it will now be up to German courts to decide whether Böhmermann is guilty of insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But criti...more »

[image: Goodlatte - 900] Republican House lawmakers are advocating the passage of a bill that would put a deadline on Congress to replace the current Internal Revenue Code -- which is over 70,000 pages -- after December 31, 2019. At press conference Thursday, Colin Hanna, the president of Let...more »

[image: Exxon - 900] Environmentalist activists and wealthy donors have been quietly meeting behind the scenes to further the narrative that ExxonMobil "is a corrupt institution" as part of a massive campaign to "delegitimize" the oil giant, according to leaked documents. Activists say they...more »

*FRIDAY, APRIL 15, 2016Part 4—Woman B banished from Earth:* To what extent was Walter Isaacson able to make Einstein easy? Let's put that a different way: To what extent was Isaacson able to explain the "eureka moment" which led Einstein to his special theory of relativity, the revolutionary theory he propounded in 1905? To what extent was Isaacson able to explain the "key insight" which lay at the heart of that theory, Einstein's "great conceptual step?" One hundred and eleven years later, we'd say he didn't explain it well. In fairness, we'll offer a quick excuse: It's beginn...more »

Brexit campaigners cried hypocrisy after Jeremy Corbyn changed his tune to back the Remain campaign in the EU referendum . David Cameron said he welcomed Mr Corbyn’s backing for EU membership Making his first major speech of the referendum campaign, Corbyn stood by past criticisms of the EU but said Britain had to remain in to fight for social reform. The Sun reports: As late as last summer the Islington MP refused to rule out campaigning for Brexit, having previously branded EU policies “crazy and immoral”. But pragmatism has ruled the day and the Labour leader is backing the In ca...more »

[image: 1abortion] Yesterday’s Congressional hearing on a bill to prevent race-based and sex-based abortions was often tense, with abortion advocates decrying the legislation as racist. But according to the Chairman of the House’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, “abortions are targeting...more »

By Paul Homewood It is sad to report on the death yesterday of Sir David Mackay, formerly Chief Scientific Advisor at DECC. While he had opposing views to many of us, I have found him to be open and courteous. He was also honest enough to admit the very real problems with the […]

* This is my article in BusinessWorld last April 14, 2016. Several issues related to rice farming and trading in the Philippines hogged the news recently. The first of course is the big El Niño and crop failure in many provinces in the country and many other tropical countries. Second, the farmers’ rally in Kidapawan, Cotabato that turned bloody early this April. And third, on large-scale agricultural smuggling including rice. The 2015-2016 El Niño indeed was huge, reaching up to 2.5 Celsius deviation from the average temperatures, but it is comparable to the 1997-1998 El Nino (see...more »

Germany has accepted a request from Turkey to allow the possible prosecution of comedian Jan Böhmermann who is accused of insulting Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on German television The German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Berlin “will give its authorization” over a request by Turkey on the prosecution of a German TV comedian for a satirical poem about Turkish President. Press TV reports: “The government will give its authorization in the case at hand,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin on Friday, adding that it was up to the courts to decide on the comedian’s guilt or innocence. The German c...more »

[image: paris attacks - 900] LONDON (AP) -- Five people have been arrested in Britain and several properties were being searched Friday in Birmingham in an investigation following the deadly attacks in Paris and Brussels, police said. West Midlands Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale said...more »

One of the papers in a book of presentations from a computing conference has been pulled after the editors realized the authors never made it to the meeting. The book was supposed to comprise papers that were presented at the 2nd International Conference on Harmony Search, an algorithm that finds a vector which optimizes a particular function, based on the […] The post Chapter pulled from conference proceedings after authors didn’t attend appeared first on Retraction Watch.

*The Guardian:* *Thousands of refugees flee for Turkish border after surprise Isis attack* Syrian refugees flee after camps are overrun by Isis but find themselves being shot at by Turkish border troops A new wave of refugees has fled northern Syria for the Turkish border after Islamic State opened fire on communities that had sheltered them, killing at least three people and uprooting thousands more. The killings came as the terror group pushed back Syrian opposition forces who had edged to within five miles of Dabiq, a highly symbolic village that the group’s leaders believe is...more »

One of the people *Reality Check *debunked the other day was the TUC's Frances O'Grady. She followed Anthony Reuben on today's *The World at One. * Anthony Reuben was on to debunk Gisela Stuart MP's claim that Brexit would mean an extra £350m a week for NHS. If there's any bias there it comes from *The World at One *for cherry-picking *Reality Check'*s debunkings and inviting Mr Reuben on accordingly (and that remains an 'if' as I've not monitored the programme's use of Anthony Reuben and *Reality Check *so far. They may *not* be cherry-picking). ****** What followed though w...more »

[image: Trump - 900] Give Donald Trump credit for planning ahead. He is preparing to be a sore loser. Trump’s complaints that he is being undone by a rigged system crafted by a corrupt Republican Party is the dress rehearsal for his campaign’s closing...more »

[image: danube - 900] BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) -- Human remains found in 2011, including many believed to be of Jews shot on the banks of the Danube River near the end of World War II, were buried Friday in a Jewish cemetery in Budapest....more »

I can't remember where I read it or who said it, but I *do* remember that whoever said it was pro-Leave and anti-BBC, so *not* some expected to say what I'm just about to cite them as saying (if you follow me)... That person was praising the BBC News website's *Reality Check. *He (or she) felt it was a beacon of decency in the BBC's coverage of the EU referendum. It seems so to me too. It's uncannily even-handed in its debunkings, but it's also very firm. It delivers verdicts, and its verdicts don't usually hold their punches. If it's wrong it says so. If it's right it says so....more »

*Globe and Mail* *As always pay attention to the details:* *“Generally, getting inoculated reduces the risk of contracting influenza by about 40 to 60 per cent. But last year’s vaccine was found over all to be less than 10 per cent effective in preventing cases of flu – and in some people may have actually helped increase the risk of getting sick”* *About- Used to define a number that is not certain or exact* *The inoculation reductions are always best guess scenarios*. *About 40-60 percent? * Perhaps it's 20 to 40? How about 10 and 30? I can't be certain. And nor can the so calle...more »

*Laurent Brayard writes (Translated by Tom Winter):* There was a time when I wrote that we were in a Second Cold War. There was also a time when I, like many others, looked upon the fall of the Soviet Union as a great victory for peace. There is much to say yet about the USSR, certainly the giant had long since been a "dead man walking," frozen, paralyzed, and cornered by a race against the great American enemy, a competition which ended in the complete destruction of a system which was no longer viable neither knowing how to resist the onslaught of the West over time, or how to...more »

*VOA*: *US General: IS Losing Its Grip in Afghanistan* PENTAGON—Islamic State (IS) appears to be losing its grip in Afghanistan, due in part to a steady aerial bombardment from U.S. and NATO forces and the terror group's failure to win over Afghans themselves. "Nobody really wants Daesh [Islamic State] in the neighborhood," Brigadier General Charles Cleveland, a spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission, told Pentagon reporters Thursday via a video link from Afghanistan. "We think we have significantly decreased the footprint that they have in Afghanistan," he said. ...more »

Lawmakers in Jamaica are to debate a constitutional amendment that would replace Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II as head of state and make the island a republic. The legislative agenda also includes a proposal to fully legalize marijuana for “specified purposes.” The Independent reports: The proposal is a “major action item” on the new government’s 2016-2017 legislative agenda, and would replace the Queen with a Non-Executive President, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen said Thursday in a speech to parliament posted on the government’s website. Jamaican Labour Party leader Andrew Holn...more »

*From* *Jenna Orkin* Deutsche Bank Admits It Rigged Gold Prices, Agrees To Expose Other Manipulators This comes a day after Deutsche Bank Confirms Silver Market Manipulation In Legal Settlement, Agrees To Expose Other Banks.. In light of these two developments, consider DB's advice: DEUTSCHE BANK: There is no need to fear helicopter money. Wells Fargo Finally Reveals Its Dire Energy Exposure: $32 Billion To Junk-Rated Oil And Gas Companies Worst Mediterranean drought in 900 years has human fingerprints all over it What is Coming? Elite Feverishly Building Survival Bunkers: "Fear O...more »

Russia was one of Iraq’s strongest supporters dating back to the 1950s after the monarchy was overthrown. The Baathists and Saddam Hussein made the Soviets one of their closest allies early on. They would later diversify their relations reaching out to Western Europe, but Moscow always remained a close friend. When it came to the U.S. invasion in 2003, Saddam believed that President Vladimir Putin would stop it. That didn’t happen, but the Russians did provide intelligence on the American plans to Baghdad. Right before the start of the war, the Russian Ambassador to Iraq gave the ...more »

[image: teachers tenure - 900] LOS ANGELES (AP) -- California teacher unions have regained the advantage in their fight to keep the state’s tenure system. The victory came in the form of an appeals court decision that reversed a trial judge’s ruling that found tenure...more »

[image: Kansas voting - 900] The American Civil Liberties Union took legal action Thursday to block a Kansas voter ID law ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The ACLU wants a federal judge to suspend the state's voter ID requirement until the lawsuit it filed over the...more »

Rupa Huq MP, plugging her racy comic novel ("a page-turner", Jeremy Corbyn) So - and falling squarely into 'you couldn't make it up' territory - Muslim Labour MP Rupa Huq has branded the BBC's politically correct sitcom *Citizen Khan *"Islamophobic". Tom Goodenough at the *Spectator *had leapt, gallantly, to the programme's defence: *But while you won’t laugh at Citizen Khan, it’s just not fair to say that it’s Islamophobic. No one is going to change their attitude towards Islam after watching this show and no one in their right mind would make a judgement about Muslims based on an...more »

And talking of BBC One, *News-watch* has some interesting statistics on the channel's flagship *News at Ten.* Over the past month there have only been *four* feature-length sequences specifically about the referendum (24/3, 30/3, 6/4 and 14/4). Of the other shorter items, *five *were about splits within the Conservative party (14/3, 15/3, 16/3, 18/3 and 19/3). News-watch's summary of their findings so far are: *News-watch has found in its continuing research that bias by omission is recurring problem in BBC EU coverage because audiences are not kept properly informed. This low...more »

The *Spectator* editorial this week reminds its readers why the press is much less powerful than the BBC: *The circulation of British newspapers has fallen by a third since the hacking scandal broke. The idea of an all-powerful press deciding which politicians to make and which to destroy is now impossible to reconcile with the sorry state of Fleet Street.The Independent has disappeared from the newsagents; others will follow. The Sun and the Daily Mail, Britain’s two most popular newspapers, are now bought by just 3 per cent of the adult population; just 6 per cent say they get th...more »

President Barack Obama talks with the Joint Chiefs of Staff following a meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, Oct. 28, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) *Dan Lamonthe, Washington Post:* *Obama’s top generals are mostly white men. Could the system picking them change?* Since President Obama took office in 2009, his administration has pushed through a series of changes in the Defense Department that have made the U.S. military more inclusive. Among them, the Pentagon repealed the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that banned gay people from open...more »

Republican Marco Rubio; Republican Ted Cruz; Democrat Bernie Sanders; Republican Donald Trump; and Democrat Hillary Clinton. February 04, 2016. AFP *Nick Bernabe, Antimedia*:* 2016: The Year the Americans Found out Our Elections Are Rigged* *“Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. senators and congress members.” — Former President Jimmy Carter.* Denver, CO — The 2016 election has been a wild ride, with two insurgent grassroo...more »

[image: Sen. Ben Sasse] Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., introduced a bill Thursday that would force the Obama administration to deposit $5 billion in the Treasury by 2017 as required under Obamacare's reinsurance program or face steep cuts to its departmental management fund this year...more »

[image: In this Oct. 10, 2015, file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un salutes at a parade in Pyongyang, North Korea. President Barack Obama will be meeting with Asian leaders in Washington this week as fears grow that long-smoldering tensions on the Korean Peninsula and in the South China Sea risk flaring into conflict. But other pressing security issues will be up for discussion on the sidelines of the two-day gathering that starts Thursday, March 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E, File)] SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A North Korea missile launch meant to celebrate the birthday of t...more »

The Oncologist has tagged three review papers that share a first author with an expression of concern. The three papers, which have together been cited more than 1,000 times, focus on HER2, a gene that can contribute to breast cancer. Though the papers contain errors, the conclusions — about how the HER2 gene serves as […] The post Three HER2-cancer review papers tagged with expressions of concern appeared first on Retraction Watch.

I'll be honest. My brain started tuning out last night's Democratic debate after about three innings. The first strikeout came when Bernie was asked if he could name one example of Hillary Clinton changing her vote as a result of a corporate donation. He bungled it big-time. He popped a high fly out into right field, where it hovered in the air harmlessly before plunking smack dab into Hillary's placid, waiting mitt. DANA BASH (CNN moderator) : Senator Sanders, you have consistently criticized Secretary Clinton for accepting money from Wall Street. Can you name one decision t...more »

*A Tribute To Those Who Stand For Us* A time of change is soon upon not just you but many, many others. The old ways are no more. Now is a time of a great transformation of financial markets and the ways of commerse. No longer will a few control the many. For now is the time of co-operation and consensus upon us. Now, many assemble in the great financial centers. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Seats of once mighty financial entities, now overcome and defeated by represntatives of the 99 % of humanity. These way seers and way showers and way doers now gather before the ...more »

Policemen block protest rally at Manezhnaya Square in Moscow December 30, 2014. (Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva) / *Reuters* *John Lloyd, Reuters*: *When will Russia break?* When will Russia break? A rock bottom oil price, Western sanctions, inflation, a demographic crisis… when is the Second Russian Revolution? Next year, on the centenary of the first? 1917-2017? In the first, workers and peasants and soldiers – not in huge numbers, but enough – rose against the wealthy aristos in their gilded St. Petersburg palaces. The post-Soviet ruling class, led by President Vladimir Putin, has sh...more »

I am not much of a cake person. I just have never found one that had the right density and taste. My mom LOVES cake and a few weeks ago we set out to make the perfect melt in your mouth cake that I would love to. This. IS. It. This cake is like velvet on the tongue. An entire cake barely lasts a day in our house. We all love it so much. We have tried lots of different variations on the cake, but this is one of my favorites, White Chocolate with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting. For the Cake: - 1 package white cake mix (I like the Duncan Hines Mix for these cakes) - 1 small bo...more »

Crossroads, a series of PACs that have made Karl Rove very very rich as he takes a cut off the top from foolish right-wing contributors, did the above ad comparing Hillary to Nixon. It's not very persuasive and won't do much to move any narratives forward. But I'm sure Rove made some bank from it. With Paul "fresh face" Ryan perhaps taking himself out of contention-- I still don't believe it-- Rove is desperate to assure himself a steady income flow. He was hoping running campaigns to save seats for vulnerable GOP senators like Toomey, Kirk, Ayotte, Grassley, Burr, Portman, and Ro...more »

*"Weekly News Wrapup April 15, 2016"* By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com "Emergency Fed meetings at the White House, the launching of new gold trading market at the Shanghai Gold Exchange, revelations Deutsche Bank admitting it manipulated gold and silver prices, China starting its own global payment system. These may all seem unrelated, but according to macroeconomic researcher Rob Kirby, they are all connected. Kirby explains, “With China and their upstart CIPS, which is the China Interbank Payment System, China appears to be on the verge of merging their interbank payment system wi...more »

"And in every one of us, there's a war going on. It's a civil war. I don't care who you are, I don't care where you live, there is a civil war going on in your life. And every time you set out to be good, there's something pulling on you, telling you to be evil. It's going on in your life. Every time you set out to love, something keeps pulling on you, trying to get you to hate. Every time you set out to be kind and say nice things about people, something is pulling on you to be jealous and envious and to spread evil gossip about them. There's a civil war going on. There is a schiz...more »

The use of food banks in the UK has risen to record highs with more than a million three-day emergency food supplies provided by the Trussell Trust charity last year. As the Trust reveals a continued rise, a separate report estimates more than half of the emergency food aid supplied in Britain comes from independent organisations not included in the charity’s figures Government figures have also indicated a shocking rise in deaths linked to malnutrition. RT reports: The charity’s latest figures point to delays and changes to benefits as the biggest causes of foodbank use by those rel...more »

Some commentators view what happened in Edmonton last weekend as an exercise in self destruction. Not so, writes Murray Dobbin. The membership of the NDP has sent a clear message. Principle is more important than political opportunism: The NDP has paid a staggering price for the politics of its last two leaders. Jack Layton was more in tune with the social democratic roots of the party than Mulcair, but he launched the shift to a strategy aimed at achieving power. The inevitable result was to water down social democratic principles and move the party to the centre. It also led t...more »

[image: Spain Industry Minister] MADRID (AP) -- The European Union’s five biggest economies, including Germany and Britain, have agreed to share information on company ownership and are urging other nations to do the same to make it harder for criminals and tax cheats to...more »

Turkey has shut down Russian state news agency website Sputnik. The website was taken down on Thursday without any prior notice by the Turkish authorities. RT reports: “After technical analysis and legal consideration based on the law Nr. 5651, administration measure has been taken for this website (sputniknews.com) according to decision Nr. 490.05.01.2016.-56092 dated 14/04/2016 of the Presidency of Telecommunication and Communication,” says an error message that appears on the sputniknews.com homepage for any user trying to access the site from Turkey. Sputnik’s Turkish bureau chie...more »

Surfing the internet comes with its own hazards. Hackers could steal your identity, empty your bank account or put malicious code in your computer. With the increase of smartphones coming on the market the criminal element of the internet is having a field day. There are nine things you can do to make their lives a bit harder and your device secure. BGR reports: Looking at the state of internet security, Norton Security makers Symantec released a detailed report that takes an in-depth look at our current digital life. The company found that mobile vulnerabilities and weaknesses are u...more »

[image: Migrants and refugees sleep as a man from Pakistan wrapped in a blanket watches a ferryboat leaving the port of the Greek island of Chios, Wednesday, April 6, 2016. On Monday, 202 migrants from 11 countries were sent back to Turkey from the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios. The same day, 155 migrants were caught on the Aegean by the Turkish coast guard. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)] LESBOS, Greece (AP) -- Municipal crews were pressure-hosing streets, pruning trees and touching up building facades on this Greek island where Pope Francis will visit Saturday, a mission human ...more »

Still with last night's *Newsnight...* Naturally, 'while he had him there' (as the saying goes), Evan Davis decided to ask film-maker Peter Greenaway for his take on the EU referendum. Evan's obvious attempt to get him to make a 'film industry' case for the UK staying in the EU didn't go to plan though, as Mr Greenaway misunderstood what Evan was asking him and praised the glories of Dutch art instead!: *Evan Davis*: Before we let you go, the big issue here. You live in Amsterdam. At the moment the big issue here is our relationship with Europe. I don't know if you get a vote ac...more »

This represents the kind of thing that makes me fear staying in Europe: (H/T Steyn online) *"Our cities are facing a huge problem, maybe the largest since World War II," Mr. Goldstein said. "How is it that people who were born here in Brussels, in Paris, can call heroes the people who commit violence and terror? That is the real question we're facing."* *Friends who teach the equivalent of high school seniors in the predominantly Muslim districts of Molenbeek and Schaerbeek told him that "90 percent of their students, 17, 18 years old, called them heroes," he said.* And, wrt *lea...more »

There have been calls for British Prime Minister David Cameron to resign following the Panama papers revelations. It was first believed that there was £30,000 in Cameron’s offshore account in the Bahamas, but according to a report by investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist Wayne Masden, the amount was at least two million pounds According to Intrepid report: British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to fend off criticism of an offshore trust maintained in the Bahamas by his father Ian Cameron and which he inherited upon his father’s death in 2010. The details ...more »

[image: Male and Female Bathrooms - 900] Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker was booed off the stage at an LGBT networking event Wednesday night because he wouldn't promise to sign a bill that would make transgender bathrooms legal and prohibit refusal of service to transgender people. Baker initially drew...more »

If there's one thing that Ian Katz's *Newsnight *has made its own it's its coverage of social media storms and spats. So it was inevitable that it would cover 'Tottygate'. Here's what happened: An unnamed Tory MP called Isabel Hardman of *The Spectator *"the totty". She complained to the whips. The MP apologised. Twitter went mad. Isabel Oakeshott wrote in the* Mail* that her namesake shouldn't have complained as it was no big deal and actually a compliment. Twitter went mad again. *Newsnight *decided it was a must-cover story. And *Newsnight *duly covered it. Isabel Oakeshott w...more »

There's an interesting post from Sarah AB at *Harry's Place*, which merits sharing: I agree with everything Sarah wrote there - including her point that we need more than *Breitbart* to confirm what happened in court and the judge's ruling. No one else appears to be reporting the story, certainly not the BBC. If Breitbart's story is correct, then it most certainly *should *be reported.

Not 'EU and Yours' Next was the first of a 'new series' on *Newsnight - *Episode One of *Referendum Road*, the programme's round-the-country series of reports gauging public opinion in different parts of the UK. The opening report came from Katie Razzall, who went to Cornwall and spoke to a lot of very charming people. She began with a fish-merchant who is for pro-Brexit. speaking to him and his customers (some of whom were pro-Brexit, some anti-Brexit). She then went to a local charity, which has received some funding from the EU's social fund. Everyone there was anti-Brexit. ...more »

Baron Baker of Dorking Next up was a genuinely interesting interview with Kenneth Baker on schools. Here's how Evan Davis framed the discussion: *Now, you probably remember the reform of the English NHS back in 2012 - a reorganisation that got rather little scrutiny at first. Then there was disquiet, which then turned to large-scale discontent and then some redrawing of the plans. Well, are we heading down a similar path now with the reform of schools in England?* He then played clips from the Commons of Conservative MPs registering their "disquiet" at the decision to force all s...more »

John Sweeney did another of those reports on last night's *Newsnight* where he ambushes some 'wrongdoer' in the street and then repeatedly shouts questions at him. Alas, the famous John Sweeney 'roar' didn't put in an appearance, but it was a highly-charged encounter nonetheless, and it certainly made the ambushed politician look even dodgier. The politician in question is one of Jeremy Corbyn's hard-left allies, Ian Lavery, MP for Wansbeck (near Morpeth in Northumbria if you were wondering - as I was. The constituency, as far as I can see, is named after a river that runs through...more »

ONE BY ONE, THE AIR FORCE KEEPS PEELING OFF PLANES FROM THE A-10 WARTHOG FORCE. IMAGE SOURCE: NORTHROP GRUMMAN. *Motley Fool*: *Air Force Reneges on A-10 Warthog Commitment* *"2022 final retirement" turns out to be more fiction than fact.* Two months ago, A-10 Warthog supporters were cheering. Now the cheers have fallen silent. In a Feb. 2 speech in Washington, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter committed the U.S. Air Force to postponing "final retirement" of the A-10 Warthog fighter-bomber "until 2022," putting an end to years of contentious debate over the future of the aircraft...more »

Donald Trump speaks on the USS Iowa in San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, September 15, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson *Nancy Youssef, Daily Beast:* *Top Brass: Military Should Stay Out of Politics* The head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is ordering commanders to keep well clear of the political debates in the current presidential campaign. The highest-ranking U.S. military officer is ordering commanders to tread carefully during the current presidential campaign—even if their expertise could correct misguided ideas about national security. This presidential campaign has introduced ...more »

Facebook page for this event/address: 台中市西屯區市政北二路305號(No.305,shizhengN,2nd Rd.,Xitun Dist.Taichung) _______________________ [Taiwan] Don't miss the comments below! And check out my blog and its sidebars for events, links to previous posts and picture posts, and scores of links to other Taiwan blogs and forums!

*“'Damn Emails?' Actually, They're Damning Emails”* By Nikki Lambert “While I was proud of Bernie Sanders when he refused to stoop to attacking Hillary Clinton on what I initially believed to be merely another manufactured right wing scandal, I now believe Sanders will have to address Clinton's 'damn emails,' as they do, in fact, damn her. As a former postal employee, I became quite familiar with the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR)- which governs the employees of the federal government- and the United States Code (USC)- which specifies crimes and their penalties. Let's just say t...more »

By Paul Homewood h/t Stewgreen http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160408-this-is-how-far-seas-could-rise-thanks-to-climate-change Stew draws my attention to the above new piece on BBC Earth about sea levels. Even by the BBC’s standards, it must be one of the most dishonest and one sided reports they have published. Let’s start with these two photos: Yes, tide gauges […]

Sebastian was the first one who saw a new paper Asymptotic structure of electrodynamics revisited by Andřej Herdegen in Krakow, Poland. The paper claims that there are some serious generalized problems with the latest "big program" by Andy Strominger and his pals (search e.g. for soft Strominger on this blog). First of all, Herdegen claims that the bulk of the classical results by Strominger talking about new conservation laws linked to the null infinity (at least those referring to the electromagnetic field) have been known for decades, from the work by Bramson in the late 1970s, ...more »

Free Planet, in its radical Creativity, Passion and Kinship ethos, goes on about doing things for the sake of 'our children's children' but what does this really mean? TIME it takes a long time to change a mind. This current seven billion isn't going to benefit from Free Planet. I'm not. You're not. It's too out-there an idea. A world without Profit. A world without Patent. A world without Ownership, Rents, Taxes, Prisons, Money, Hierarchy, Laws. *"Are you serious?" * Free Planet is very serious about its caring for 'our children's children' and those people who are alive now...more »

Four large earthquakes were recorded on Wednesday and Thursday this week, including one major earthquake in southern Japan which killed 2 people, as well as another in India where Royal couple Kate and William were visiting. Scientists have raised the alarm that the unusual number of quakes occurring at the moment could be a precursor to “the big one” – indicating that a cataclysmic mega-quake might be on its way in the next few days. Scientists say that the above number of significant quakes across south Asia and the Pacific this year likely means that we are about to experience a...more »

The Telegraph reveals http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/14/uk-obliged-judgments-of-european-courts-official-document-from-m/ 'Britain is "obliged" to accept European Union laws and judgments, according to an official report slipped out by ministers ahead of the formal start of the referendum campaign. The 96-page paper, which was published without fanfare, was described by Brexit campaigners as the "Government report No.10 does not want you to read". The document highlights the fact that Britain has to adopt EU law and accept the rulings of the European Court of Justice.' ...more »

The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis arrives to join the annual Key Resolve military exercise conducted by South Korea and the U.S., at a port in Busan, South Korea, March 13, 2016. REUTERS/Cho Jung-ho/Yonhap *Reuters*: *U.S. defense secretary to visit carrier in disputed South China Sea* U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he will visit a U.S. aircraft carrier transiting the disputed South China Sea on Friday, a move bound to anger China, which has been increasingly asserting its territorial claims. China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to ha...more »

President Barack Obama meets with Gen. Raymond Odierno, Commanding General, United States Forces-Iraq, in the Oval Office, June 2, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) *David France, The Cable/Foreign Policy*: *Odierno: 50,000 Troops Needed To Defeat the Islamic State* It will take around 50,000 troops to destroy the Islamic State, according to the Army’s recently retired chief, but they don’t necessarily all have to be American. That’s the assessment retired Army Gen. Ray Odierno gave Wednesday at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Washington Forum. He adde...more »

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed the first ever case of sexual transmission of the Zika virus between two gay men. The CDC say that the sexual transmission occurred in Dallas this January between two men who had unprotected sex. Statnews.com reports: While gay men who want to avoid Zika infection should take note, the lesson here applies to both men and women: Zika infection can be contracted through unprotected anal sex. Dr. John Brooks, from the CDC’s division of HIV/AIDS prevention, said the case doesn’t change the agency’s recommendations on how ...more »

*A comparison of men's and women's work, with and without PC* Dilaton has witnessed a rather shocking interaction at the Academia Stackexchange. A user named Jonathan Reez asked whether the author of a laborious paper is obliged to give the raw data to followers. He needed a term to express the idea: I've recently read... which would normally take thousands of *man-hours*... It's all about the man-hour, a unit of human work – the amount that the average worker does in one hour. One man is a unit of "generalized power" analogous to one watt (except that it's some "general energy and ...more »

The process of 'burying' the John Whittingdale story, as discussed yesterday, appears to be gathering pace. As Alan at *Biased BBC *notes: Curious…the Whittingdale story, headline news yesterday, has vanished completely from the BBC website’s frontpage, UK page and politics page. He asks a question on the back of this: Have they retreated after having overplayed their hand, leaving people to think that maybe the Newsnight hit was politically motivated? That's a good question. It certainly does look like that, doesn't it?

Stephen Pollard isn't impressed with the BBC over the Proms. The *Times * headline, *The ‘Strictly Prom’ shows how craven the BBC has become*, sums up his point. The BBC is proud of its role in sustaining the Proms. Yet just as the corporation’s primetime TV programming has lost almost all connection with Reithian principles of informing, educating and entertaining, so too its Proms have gone the same way. Take Strictly Come Dancing. It’s one thing that it dominates BBC One on a Saturday night, where one can try to justify it on the basis of popularity. But on July 21 the Royal...more »

(h/t *B-BBC*) Do you ever get the feeling that the BBC News website is campaigning *at you*? Well, it looks as if it could be (surprise, surprise!) Sarah Shenker, front page editor for the BBC News website, wrote a blog on the BBC College of Journalism Academy's website last July headlined *How could you help people take collective action on climate change?* Sarah headed a BBC team attending a conference in Barcelona. Here's what happened next: We wanted to look at goal number 13, which is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. The idea we settled on was ...more »

A Bombed car was trying to target #ICTS hero's in #Hit, and was blown away by a Cornet Rocket! pic.twitter.com/pUVvS1zZ5z — جهاز مكافحة الإرهاب (@iraqicts) April 12, 2016 *Foreign Policy*:* Meet the ‘Beast,’ the Little Iraqi Tank That Could* The Pentagon continues to search so hard for clear victories against the Islamic State that it can show off to a war-weary American public that it has begun heavily promoting the exploits of a single Iraqi tank nicknamed the “Beast.” Baghdad-based military spokesman Col. Steve Warren went out of his way during a routine Wednesday briefing to ...more »

[image: Bernie Hugo Donald - 900] Does this sound familiar? “They wanted something new, something fresh, and they found in this man a radical discourse. He said he would get rid forever of the old elites.” Or this: “He ran as the outsider, the non-politician in...more »

*Reuters:* *North Korea missile launch fails in embarrassing setback for leader Kim* North Korea attempted and failed to launch what experts believe was an intermediate range ballistic missile on Friday in defiance of U.N. sanctions and in an embarrassing setback for leader Kim Jong Un. The failed launch, as the reclusive country celebrates the "Day of the Sun" on the birthday of Kim's grandfather, follows the North's fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February, which led to new U.N. sanctions. But the North has nevertheless pushed ahead with its mis...more »

My previous two posts addressed the earthquake in Japan with special reference to the nuclear power plants located closest to the earthquake epicenter. I've been watching Netc today and I've not seen any evidence there of elevated radiation readings. However, there are ways of manipulating online data so I'm not entirely convinced the readings are valid. The Sendai nuclear plant, the only nuclear site operating in Japan, has a history of operational problems: Tadahiro Katsuta. Why was the Sendai nuclear power plant restarted? Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. August 12, 2015, http:...more »

Guest Post by Tom Quirk A supplement by Dr Tom Quirk to the previous post by Des Moore - *Dangerous Global Warming - Fact or Fiction?* on the pledges made at last December’s meeting in Paris. Originally posted by Joanne Nova at *http://joannenova.com.au/2016/04/co2-emissions-its-china-china-china-all-the-way-down/#more-48148* 189 countries submitted pledges to the COP21 meeting in Paris at the end of 2015. These have been sorted and summarised in a very useful website Carbon Brief[1]. The following analysis is based on the top 12 countries for greenhouse gas emissions. This cover...more »

Sleazy Sell-Out. “Sunny Days”. Part II *The Bank of Canada* *Written by Robin Mathews April 2016* We have come upon a brilliant example, here in Canada, of what Anthony Hall calls *“imperial globalization*” and “*the terror economy*” (Earth Into Property, McGill-Queen’s, 2011.) Those are terms which describe the move to ‘*world government’* by increasingly unregulated (and increasingly criminal) global Capitalism backed by U.S. imperial military might. The example is The Bank of Canada. The alleged stripping of essential sovereign powers from it on behalf ...more »

Tuesday 7 of the most progressive members of Congress-- Barbara Lee (D-CA), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ),Mark Pocan (D-WI), Mike Honda (D-CA), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN), all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus-- published an open letter to *all* the presidential candidates, from progressive Bernie Sanders to conservatives John Kasich, Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan, Ted Cruz and even fringe lunatic Don Trump, urging them to prioritize raising the living standards of ordinary American families, something none of the conservative candidates...more »

Search This Blog

Translate

Microsoft Translate

opit or oldephartte's shared items

About Me

I've been 'around' for a few years now, pursuing the shifting goal of a sharable home-made surfers resource site focused on ease of use and variety of mostly adult ( whoa : I didn't say prurient ) content.